Broadband Penetration: North Central to get InfraCo soon -Danbatta

Ladesope Ladelokun

The process for licensing a seventh Infrastructure Company (InfraCo) for the North Central geo-political zone, including the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja has been concluded and the license ready for award very soon.

In a document obtained from its official website on Thursday, August 29, 2019, the Executive Vice-Chairman (EVC/CEO) of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Prof. Umar Garba Danbatta, dropped the hint yesterday at the opening session of the First Digital Africa Week organized by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and hosted by the NCC in Abuja.

He said the InfraCOs will deploy metro and intercity fibre and broadband point of access with a minimum capacity of 10 gigabits per second (10Gps) across the 774 Local Government Areas in Nigeria.

Danbatta said the NCC was not unaware of the pivotal role pervasive broadband penetration will play in actualizing deployment of Internet of Things (IoT) devices ad Smart Services in any economy, adding that the NCC has developed a framework to facilitate the deployment of broadband infrastructure in the country.

Danbatta told the gathering of global Information and Communications Technology (ICT) experts, that the NCC framework for broadband infrastructure has led to the licensing of six infrastructure companies (Infracos) for North East, North West, South East, South West, South-South and Lagos.

“With the development of Smart Cities Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) by the ITU, it is imperative to have a pervasive and ubiquitous broadband infrastructure across all our towns and cities to achieve the objectives of making them Smart,” Danbatta said.

Prof. Danbatta told the experts with excitement that “Nigeria has not only achieved but exceeded the 30 per cent penetration target set by the National Broadband Plan (NBP) (2013 – 2018) and at the end of July 2019, our broadband penetration stood at 33.72 per cent,”

he further submitted, adding that the NCC will continue to work hard to ensure that all citizens of Nigeria have access to affordable broadband connection irrespective of location.

Recall that IHS, the company initially granted the license to deploy infrastructure in the North Central Zone returned its license to the Commission over difficulties in securing Right of Way(RoW) approval.

Industry experts say InfraCOs are facing bottlenecks in securing RoW and operators are forced to pay illegal levies.